Facility Layout and

Work Design
Chapter 8

Chapter 8 Facility and Work

Design

Facility layout refers to the specific

arrangement
of physical facilities. Facility-layout studies are
necessary whenever
(1) a new facility is constructed,
(2) there is a significant change in demand or
throughput volume,
(3) a new good or service is introduced to the
customer benefit package, or
(4) different processes, equipment, and/or
technology are installed.
Operations Management, 2e/Ch. 8 Facility and Work Design
2007 Thomson South-Western

Chapter 8 Facility and Work

Design

Purposes of layout studies are to:

minimize delays in materials handling and
customer movement,
maintain flexibility,
use labor and space effectively,
promote high employee morale and customer
satisfaction,
provide for good housekeeping and
maintenance, &
enhance sales as appropriate in
manufacturing and service facilities.

Operations Management, 2e/Ch. 8 Facility and Work Design

2007 Thomson South-Western

What is good layout for?

Support the ability of operations to
accomplish its mission
flawed in some way, process efficiency
and effectiveness suffers.
For service firms, however, the facility
layout is often duplicated in hundreds or
thousands of sites. This makes it
extremely important that the layout be
designed properly
Operations Management, 2e/Ch. 8 Facility and Work Design
2007 Thomson South-Western

Chapter 8 Facility and Work

Design

Types of Facility Layouts

A product layout is an arrangement
based on the sequence of operations
that are performed during the
manufacturing of a good or delivery of a
service.
Examples: winemaking industry, credit
card processing, Subway sandwich
shops, paper manufacturers, insurance
policy processing, and automobile
assembly lines.
Operations Management, 2e/Ch. 8 Facility and Work Design
2007 Thomson South-Western

Exhibit
8.1

Product Layout

Operations Management, 2e/Ch. 8 Facility and Work Design

2007 Thomson South-Western

Chapter 8 Facility and Work

Design

Types of Facility Layouts

A process layout consists of a functional
grouping of equipment or activities that do
similar work.
Examples: legal offices, shoe
manufacturing, jet engine turbine blades,
and hospitals use a process layout.

Operations Management, 2e/Ch. 8 Facility and Work Design

2007 Thomson South-Western

Exhibit
8.2

Process Layout for a Machine Shop

Operations Management, 2e/Ch. 8 Facility and Work Design

2007 Thomson South-Western

Chapter 8 Facility and Work

Design

Cellular/Group Layout
Group technology, or cellular
manufacturing, classifies parts into
families so that efficient massproduction-type layouts can be designed
for the families of goods or services.
In a group, or cellular, layout, the design
is not according to the functional
characteristics of equipment, but rather
by groups of different equipment (called
cells) needed for producing families of
goods or services.

Operations Management, 2e/Ch. 8 Facility and Work Design

2007 Thomson South-Western

Exhibit
8.3

Cellular Manufacturing Layout

Source: E. Paul Degarmo, J. T. Black, and Ronald A. Kosher, Materials and

Processes in Manufacturing, 9th Edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2003.

Operations Management, 2e/Ch. 8 Facility and Work Design

2007 Thomson South-Western

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Chapter 8 Facility and Work

Design

A fixed-position layout consolidates

the resources necessary to manufacture
a good or deliver a service, such as
people, materials, and equipment, in
one physical location.
The production of large items such as
heavy machine tools, airplanes,
buildings, locomotives, and ships is
usually accomplished in a fixed position
layout.
Operations Management, 2e/Ch. 8 Facility and Work Design
2007 Thomson South-Western

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Chapter 8 Facility and Work

Design

Materials Handling Issues and

Systems
Industrial trucks
Fixed-path conveyor systems
Overhead cranes
Automated storage and retrieval
systems

(see OM Spotlight: Ocular

Sciences Contact Lenses Distribution

Center)
Tractor-trailer systems
Automated guided vehicles (AGVs)

Operations Management, 2e/Ch. 8 Facility and Work Design

2007 Thomson South-Western

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Chapter 8 Facility Layout in Service

Organizations

Facility Design in Service

Organizations

Service organizations use product,

process,
group, and fixed-position layouts to
organize
different types of work.
Process Layout Examples
Libraries place reference materials,
serials, and
microfilms into separate areas; hospitals
group
services by function also, such as
maternity,

Operations Management, 2e/Ch. 8 Facility and Work Design

2007 Thomson South-Western

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Exhibit 8.11 Product Layout for a Pizza Kitchen

Operations Management, 2e/Ch. 8 Facility and Work Design

2007 Thomson South-Western

14

Exhibit 8.13 Product Layout Design Options

Operations Management, 2e/Ch. 8 Facility and Work Design

2007 Thomson South-Western

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Workplace design Questions

Who will use the workplace
How will the work be
performed? What tasks are
required? How much time does
each task take?
What technology is needed?

Operations Management, 2e/Ch. 8 Facility and Work Design

2007 Thomson South-Western

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OTHER RELATED FACILITY AND

WORKPLACE DESIGN
Ergonomics
Safety issues
Job design

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2007 Thomson South-Western

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